Date: May 30, 2013 To: Michael Russell Whatcom County Facilities Management 316 Lottie Street Bellingham,

WA 98226 360-676-6746

From: Joy Gilfilen, President ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County PO Box 31026 Bellingham, WA 98228 360-354-3653 RE: EIS Comments for the scope of the Whatcom County Adult Corrections Facilities and Sheriff's Headquarters on LaBounty Road in Ferndale This submission is in addition to our spoken testimony at the EIS scoping hearing held in Ferndale on May 16, 2013. This material is a written supplement to that testimony. Attached you will find several pages outlining what our organization believes needs to be addressed in the EIS. Our primary contention is that the impact on humans and the human environment must be studied and included in this report. This is based on the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) guidelines. Since this entire project concerns humans and how they are housed, judged and treated by our county, how can the environmental impact on this population not be included in this EIS? We have nine attachments: Section 1: References from NEPA: Why the impacts on humans must be included in the EIS as per the National Environmental Protection Act Section 2: Impacts on Infrastructure development and land Section 3: Environmental impacts on inmate, families, staff, businesses, trade, services Section 4: Impact on our Political, Social, Civic Structures Section 5: Legal issues to be studied for their impact Section 6: Aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social or health impacts Section 7: Alternative Options to the Jail and Jail Site choices Section 8: Impartial 3rd Party review of the statistics, size and scope of the proposed Jail Section 9: Community Groups to include to Explore Alternatives The ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County is willing to serve in providing relevant data to help EIS researchers provide a fair and impartial Environmental Impact Statement for our County Council and taxpayers. We are an organization with direct interest in this population and issue, and by NEPA standards, our organization would be logical to be included. It is our observation that many of the organizations who have been included in the Jail planning process to date have been those who will most benefit from a large capital project, or at the least who have a hands off relationship with those who are negatively impacted; while those people who are being most
EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County 1

negatively impacted have been excluded without adequate representation. Therefore the results of this process have the potential to be skewed. For example: For purposes of accuracy, our Coalition wishes to go on record that we will be using the term Jail during our submission comments. We wish to be clear that in all this discussion we are referring to the building of the Whatcom County Jail. We are not submitting these comments under the presumption that we are building a prison or a correctional facility that would place it under an expanded or other legal definition. If it is in fact a Whatcom County Adult Correctional Facility as it is written on the Comment Request document, then that would completely change the nature of our comments, and inevitably the scope of this EIS. Experience causes us to question the distinction between building a Jail, which historically we have used in Whatcom County, and building a prison or correctional facility which is typically run by the state Department of Corrections. Since we at the Coalition are not attorneys, we have to work with what resources we have to understand the distinction. Without the resources to check the WAC, we at least checked the peoples most logical resourcetwo online sources to see if using the term might matter. We have concluded that it is critical at this point to make the distinction in our writing up of our comments: 1) In Wikipedia, it states that many terms (jail, prison, correctional facility) are used interchangeably, and then says, In some legal systems some of these terms have distinct meanings. Our question iswhat is the legal distinction in Washington State, and what is the impact if we comment on a Jail as different from a Correctional Facility? 2) In the online Free Dictionary, it states: Prison is a place used for confinement of convicted criminals. Aside from the death penalty, a sentence to prison is the harshest punishment imposed on criminals in the United States. On the federal level, imprisonment or incarceration is managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a federal agency within the department of justice. State prisons are supervised by a state agency such as a department of corrections. Confinement in prison, also known as a penitentiary or correctional facility, is the punishment that courts most commonly impose for serious crimes, such as felonies. For lesser crimes, courts usually impose short-term incarceration in a jail, detention center, or similar facility. 3) Therefore, we would like to go on record to state that since the US Dept of Justice statistics show that 60% of all those incarcerated at local jails are awaiting trial or bond hearing, it is logical to say that our Whatcom County Jail needs to remain a Jail, not an Adult Corrections Facility. Many of our Whatcom County people held in our facility are not yet convicted of a crime. In fact, we have had people waiting in our local Jail for months, even years, before they plea or are found guilty. If there is a movement to turn our Whatcom County Jail into a state Adult Corrections Facility, then it seems that this distinction needs to be made and a different EIS statement needs to be requested, and a different process would need to be followed. With that in mind, attached are our comments.

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

SECTION 1 References from NEPA: Why the impacts on humans must be included in the EIS as per the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)
Like few other infrastructure projects, the Jail site acquisition and building process is about the impact on human populations since the entire purpose of the site is about housing citizens who are going through our Whatcom County legal and justice system. Therefore, everything concerning this process has multiple ripple effects throughout the citizenry and impacts the "human environment", safety, wellness and vitality of our community. The scope of this EIS should not be limited to the human impact on our natural environment, roads and other infrastructures. According to our research, the impact on human populations falls within the guidelines of the National Environmental Protection Act, which is the oversight Act to the EIS process. Here is an excerpt from the Citizens G uide to the NEPA" which discusses jurisdictional inclusion, how states must meet or exceed national NEPA standards, and indicates that those agencies who have "an interest in the matter" should be included in the process. For further reference, please read the document produced by the Council on Environmental Quality from the Executive Office of the President. A complete guide can be downloaded at: http://ceq.hss.doe.gov/nepa/Citizens_Guide_Dec07.pdf For purposes of this document, we are providing certain excerpts here: Who should be a part of the scoping process? [Page 9] Some large or complex proposals involve multiple Federal agencies along with State, local, and Tribal agencies. If another Federal, State, local, or Tribal agency has a major role in the proposed action and also has NEPA responsibilities or responsibilities under a similar NEPA-like law17, that agency may be a joint lead agency. A joint lead agency shares the lead agencys responsibility for management of the NEPA process, including public involvement and the preparation of documents. Other Federal, State, Tribal, or local government agencies may have a decision or special expertise regarding a proposed action, but less of a role than the lead agency. In that case, such a Federal, State, Tribal, or local government agency may be a cooperating agency. A cooperating agency is an agency that has jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to any environmental impact involved in a proposal (or a reasonable alternative). Thus, a cooperating agency typically will have some responsibilities for the analysis related to its jurisdiction or special expertise. Once it has developed a proposed action, the agency will enter the initial analytical approach (Number 2 in Figure 1) to help it determine whether the agency will pursue the path of a Categorical Exclusion (CE), an Environmental Assessment (EA), or an Environmental ImpactStatement (EIS).
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Note 17: About a quarter of the states have such laws; for example, New York, Montana, Washington, and California all have such laws. New York City also has such a law. A list with references is available at www.nepa.gov by clicking on State Information or directly at http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/states.html . The agency will also request comments from other Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies that may have jurisdiction or interest in the matter. What should be included in the process? [Page 16] The identification and evaluation of alternative ways of meeting the purpose and need of the proposed action is the heart of the NEPA analysis. The lead agency or agencies must, objectively evaluate all reasonable alternatives, and for alternatives which were eliminated from detailed study, briefly discuss the reasons for their having been eliminated.31 Reasonable alternatives are those that substantially meet the agencys purpose and need. If the agency is considering an application for a permit or other federal approval, the agency must still consider all reasonable alternatives. Reasonable alternatives include those that are practical or feasible from the technical and economic standpoint and using common sense, rather than simply desirable from the standpoint of the applicant. Agencies are obligated to evaluate all reasonable alternatives or a range of reasonable alternatives in enough detail so that a reader can compare and contrast the environmental effects of the various alternatives. Why must the impact on the Human Environme nt be include d and studied? [Page 17] The agency must analyze the full range of direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of the preferred alternative, if any, and of the reasonable alternatives identified in the draft EIS. For purposes of NEPA, effects and impacts mean the same thing. They include ecological, aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health impacts, whether adverse or beneficial.33 It is important to note that human beings are part of the environment (indeed, thats why Congress used the phrase human environment in NEPA), so when an EIS is prepared and economic or social and natural or physical environmental effects are interrelated, the EIS should discuss all of these effects.34 What is the section of the NEPA Regulations on what must be studied/included? CEQ NEPA Regulation Section 1508.8 [40 C.F.R. 1508.8.] Effects include: (a) Direct effects, which are caused by the action and occur at the same time and place. (b) Indirect effects, which are caused by the action and are later in time or farther removed in distance, but are still reasonably foreseeable. Indirect effects may include
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growth inducing effects and other effects related to induced changes in the pattern of land use, population density or growth rate, and related effects on air and water and other natural systems, including ecosystems. Effects and impacts as used in these regulations are synonymous. Effects includes ecological (such as the effects on natural resources and on the components, structures, and functioning of affected ecosystems), aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health, whether direct, indirect, or cumulative. Effects may also include those resulting from actions which may have both beneficial and detrimental effects, even if on balance the agency believes that the effect will be beneficial.

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

SECTION 2 Impacts on Infrastructure Development and Land

Besides the normal environmental impact items that would logically be covered in an EIS, the following issues all need to be studied, impacts identified and issues mitigated. I. Transportation/Roads/Construction of Infrastructure Extra traffic from law enforcement, staff and persons coming to visit/service and inhabit the Jail will cause traffic pattern changes and: Expansion, widening and maintenance of the roads which will in turn impact the DOT, State, County, Interstate highway and local roads budgets, services, jurisdictions. The increase in emergency traffic as well as vendors going to and from the Jail may impact the other industrial plants in the area, and will impact services at the site, and how they use roadways, right of ways, etc. Will it impact the on and off ramps of I-5 specifically, since the patrol routes of ingress and egress to this site are partially limited and served only by one on and off ramp? What will be the impact of construction be on the commercial businesses and on the surrounding area, not just the property the prison will sit on? II. Wetlands This large Jail will have an impact on the wetlands located on this property, and on adjoining properties, and the changes in roadways and infrastructure may even impact the Nooksack River during flood periods. The land covered by parking lots, facilities, roadways, and miles of fencing. What is the impact, including the polluted water runoff entering our streams and rivers from construction and from the increased volume of use? What types of flora and fauna are on the property and on adjoining properties and what will be the long-term impact? III. Pollution The Jail will cause a great amount of pollution due to density, 24/7 living, and more. Where is the waste going? How much will there be? What type of waste? Who will be in charge if something goes wrong? What are your waste disposal strategies and who handles waste spills? IV. Safety of industrial/toxic environments Putting a high hazard facility in the middle of volatile industrial environment produces a unique mix of complications. What happens in case of fire, and how will that impact the other industrial properties? What if people escape, what kind of vulnerabilities are there for the community? What if there is a derailment of the train? This is close to a railroad crossing, so how will that impact the Jail security, safety, potential threats? What about fire services? What is the impact of rail traffic, potential coal train traffic and railroad regulations on this Jail?
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V. Energy and other public utilities What is in place there already, and what would need to be provided by other agencies? How much energy, gas, electricity, etc will be required to run the Jail? Will any of these pose an excess hazard when we view it in context of the neighboring hazardous industrial sites? What plans are there for energy conservation, or what could be included? Are there existing water mains and electric hookups, if not where would it have to come from? Will the city of Ferndale be required to install water/sewage and electric infrastructure to the new Jail? VII. Lights an often overlooked issue, must be addressed in this situation To ensure that there are no escapes and for "security" reasons especially in a flat jail, ALL prisons and jails use an inordinate amount of lighting 24/7 inside and outside. Think of all the electricity used for the mall on just the lighting. This WILL affect the wildlife and plants for several miles around. It will interfere with their mating, eating, and sleeping habits and patterns and could extinguish certain species. Does this endanger any protected species? Further, it will have an impact on those living near the Jail with total light and noise pollution. And it will have a visual impact on those driving by on the freeway who will all be constantly reminded that there is a Jail there. What would be the impact on Tourism trade? Can this even be mitigated? If not, this impact certainly needs to be compared to the costs and impacts of building and running a Jail that is tall rather than spread out, and one that is already inside the city where street lights and city lights already exist, and are accepted as normal.

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

SECTION 3 Environmental Impacts on Inmates, Families, Staff, Businesses, Trade, Services

There will be substantial impacts on people all across our community for moving the Jail out of its current location, which is in the County seat. It will displace people, businesses and services, change commercial routes, habits of how we do business in all our government related processes. All the cultural, economic, social, psychological and physical impacts need to be studied. In fact, even the question of whether our local Jail can legally be moved out of the County seat needs to be studied for the implications and ripple effects of that move. Thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars a year of commerce will change patterns. Bureaucratic agencies and staff: What will the impact be on the lifestyles and business habits of the office staff members, Jail officers, arresting officers, the various levels of attorneys and their research staff, prosecutors offices, public defenders officers, medical support, doctors, psychologists and more? Support Businesses and Vendors: What are the impacts on companies such as the bail bond companies, canteen and food vendors, taxi drivers and transportation services? Non-profits and other Service Organizations: What is the impact on the non-profit organizations, advocacy and mediation groups that work with people from all sides of the process? How will it impact the staff and administrative people, the inmates, the victims, the reentry programs and anyone else who serves this population? The inmates themselves How does this emotionally affect those who are being charged, have not yet gone to trial and have not yet been found guilty, to be in a large compound like this? What is the impact of not being able to have easy access to their defenders or their support people? What is the impact of being tried by video and not by humans? What are the physical and health impact of living next to a waste and garbage and medical hazards facility, next to potential coal train and industrial traffic? Some of these people will live on site 24/7 for days, weeks, months, even years. Athough technically it is only supposed to hold people less than a year, that is not the reality. What is the net effect of all this toxic exposure, and is there a liability to the County for this exposure? What happens when people cannot be held, and are released in the middle of the night when there are no taxi services, or public transportation is available? They cannot afford to pay

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

for taxis, and will be released in the middle of the county. Will there have to be a secondary central processing facility in downtown Bellingham to mitigate all these impacts? What about people on work release, or those in drug court or teen court checking in for urine samples, probation, and the rest of servicing those people who are in process through our highly complicated legal system? How will that be handled? Will we need additional facilities to mitigate these impacts? The list of impacts on inmates and all the citizens is large and complex and it must be studied and mitigatedand at what real cost?

Families of the inmates: These people are already heavily impacted financially and physically by their family members being taken out of the family, and not being easily accessible. How will it impact the large segments of our population who are dealing with poverty today? It is far more expensive and will unfairly impact our poor and homeless to not be able to visit or provide support to their family members. How does this ripple out to affect the family dynamics? Often it is the head of a household who is incarcerated, and people with children. What is the impact of that? Family members, many of who may or may not have easy transportation, will not be able to meet the people being released, and they may be unable to easily visit or get help to their family members who have been incarcerated. What is the ripple effect on them, their children, their access to support?

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

SECTION 4 Impact on our Political, Social, Civic Structures

What will be the shift in the economic, social and fiscal effects on our taxpayers and civic centers of moving this Jail out of the downtown core? Out of the County seat? How will the balance of power in our county shift? How will our attitudes change if the Jail becomes a Correctional Facility? How will it affect the capacity and response times of the different jurisdictions and agencies? This is a key shift in how we do government business. It deserves to be studied for the impact on our cities, our state, our taxpayers, on the airport, and on commerce. What will be the impact and changes in taxes, consumption of services, changes in city jurisdictions, law enforcement patterns, political legislative districts? How will it impact the urban growth areas, manufacturing facilities and growth areas for Ferndale, city shopping, political influence? How does it impact the safety and efficacy of the current offices, business and infrastructure investments in the downtown Bellingham core? How will it economically, culturally, socially and businesswise affect the tiny town of Ferndale; and how will it change the business and tourism climate and population? What will be the fiscal impact of all the City of Bellingham officers having to travel north to Ferndale to handle bookings? The largest amount of population is served quickl y in downtown Bellinghamso how will that impact safety downtown when officers have to travel farther for all arrests? Will it increase the police costs downtown? Is there any plan to move the Courts out by the Jail so that business can be conducted in an efficient manner, or is there some other plan to conduct trials and do business? What is the cost or anticipated manner to do this?

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

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SECTION 5 Legal issues to be studied for their impact

There are legal issues that need to be studied for the human environmental impact. There are many complex and overlaying law and justice issues, many jurisdictions and authorities for all the infrastructural and civic changes. What legal precedents could be unwittingly set? How can we examine the potential impact of many changes on the legal landscape can have on the inmates, the community? Are we, by moving the Jail out of the county seat creating an unwitting legal issue and changes in how we deal with local, state and national issues? How will placing our Whatcom County Jail in this location - outside the city boundaries, and outside the civic center of the city impact legislative and political power, civic jurisdictions and all governmental agencies and services? What will be the federal legislative, judicial, administrative impacts? What will be the reentry and restorative justice impacts on recidivism rates locally, statewide? If state and federal inmates will be housed here, what will be the impact of the state and federal use of this facility to house higher level prisoners on our local inmates? Is there a change in the legal status of the facility when the name is being changed from the Whatcom County Jail and is the now being called in the EIS scoping process the Whatcom County Adult Correctional Facility and Sheriffs Headquarters ? Does the change in name presumptively change the legal status of the facility and set precedence and/or change the power and scope of our Sheriffs authority and activities? Does it change the functional and legal use of the facility by other law enforcement agencies, city, state, federal and other agencies? Does the name affect who can be housed there, the building of the facility, how it is operated? Does the name change give more power to our Sheriff arbitrarily, and without the knowledge of our citizens? Research should also be done into what services can realistically and effectively be offered within a Jail environment regarding reentry services. The plans as discussed indicate that the Sheriff wishes to have alternative services, and potentially the mental health triage unit running out of this facility. The public deserves to know what the impacts of that are, and whether that is the best use for the investment of our tax dollars. Our research shows that most educational, diversion, reentry, restorative and alternative services are best administered when they are not from within a Jail compound. In fact, there has been shown to be a reverse prejudicial negative impact on people who have to go there for these services. We need an outside opinion on these matters included in the EIS study, and we need comparative projects to see the impact of including these plans in this Jail, or if they should be done in a completely different fashion at less cost to our citizens. There is a Washington State Supreme Court Ruling that found that trying a case within a Jail environment is prejudicial to those visiting and those who serve on juries. How would that ruling affect our Jail and how we handle court cases in the future?
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SECTION 6 Aesthetic, historic, cultural, economic, social, or health impacts

Regardless of whether the impacts are adverse or beneficial, according to NEPA the impacts should be studied for the whole community. They say, It is important to note that human beings are part of the environment (indeed, thats why Congress used the phrase human environment in NEPA), so when an EIS is prepared and economic or social and natural or physical environmental effects are interrelated, the EIS should discuss all of these effects. Therefore, What is the opportunity cost for Ferndale to lose its potential as a tourist city if the businesses of the city change to support an oversized Jail that may be turned into a contract services facility for downsizing state and federal facilities? What will be the impact on the Lummi Nation, on all the other city police departments across our County? What will the impact be on the people coming to do business at the Silver Reef Casino? What is the precedence of other county Jails being turned into prisons? What are the trends of the industry as a business and the trends in the commercialization and privatization of Jails into prisons? Looking at the Jail industry in the context of our environment is relevant to the citizens of this county making a smart decision about this Jail. What is the possibility that this local Jail is being set up to meet the standards for conversion into becoming a state prison, federal detention center, or a private prison? Is it being established to become that?

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

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SECTION 7 Alternative Options to the Jail and Jail Site choices

NEPA indicates that alternatives to the current project should be provided if there are other alternatives that are viable. According to the NEPA reasonable alternatives include those that are practical or feasible from the technical and economic standpoint and using common sense, rather than simply desirablefrom the standpoint of the applicant. For this purpose, we raise several alternatives that should be considered in tandem with the current proposed site. They should be judged based on relevance, current economic conditions, ease to build, assessing the real return on investment of tax dollars to the citizens over time, and common sense. Who ultimately is going to pay for all this and what makes sense to them? Alternative 1: Why not study the Division Street property at Irongate? Why is it not a viable option compared to the Ferndale property? It currently houses the Work Release facility. It could be developed to work in tandem with, or in complete replacement of the current Jail. There are at least 10.5 acres that could be used that is inside the city limits of Bellingham, that is easy access to I-5, that has transportation, roads and industrial quality services close by. There is easy access to emergency, medical and fire services. Why can this not be used for this purpose, and not cause the complete disruption of the downtown civic core? Alternative 2: Why not compare the feasibility of building the Jail downtown? Especially relative to this site? Why not examine the adjoining property downtown that is already owned as a viable alternative to the Ferndale property? Why not study it in the context of all else that has been raised in these comments? It seems that in context, this site should certainly be studied in this EIS process. The information provided to the Jail Task Force was that it was not actually better or worse to build a vertical jail as different from a flat jail. So why not re-study this site? Especially if it was built in tandem with the Division Street property, or in tandem with alternative and restorative justice options like the next suggestion. Alternative 3: Why not build a smaller jail, and a large ReStoreALife Center facility? Fashioned after the highly successful Delancy Street Project in San Francisco with some modifications, the whole purpose is to reduce costs to the taxpayers, get a safer city and restore a civic center that is healthy and viable, while getting people out of the recidivism cycle and putting them to work. Why not study the logic and efficacy of building a Jail of a smaller sizelike 400 to 500 beds that is more in line with national trends? Why not study the impact for how we can intentionally invest in early education, prevention and restorative justice alternatives that have been proven to yield a higher return on investment of tax dollars to the community?
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Rather than cutting back on Drug Court and Teen Court, why not expand them, and add Veterans Courts, Homeless Courts and Mental Health Courts (which also have a high proven success rate) and do a complete reversal of penal system practices that have been proven not to work? Why not use the old Federal Building for this purpose (a current albatross for the City of Bellingham), and get a better return for our community? According to the US Bureau of Prisons, US Justice Department and the PEW Research Center statistics, crime rates nationally are going down, alternative treatments have been proven viable with high success rates and there are many programs that are already proven to replace the growth of jail populations. And they are better for the community on all levels. Right now, the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County is currently building a coalition of organizations locally who are planning such an alternative. For a short list of organizations who could be included in this solution go to Item 9.

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

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SECTION 8 Impartial 3rd Party Review of the Statistics, the Size and Scope of the Jail
In any project of this size, it seems that it would be prudent and common sense to see if there are errors or efficiencies that could be implemented that could reduce the expenditures or reduce the size of the project. This would fall within the scope of this EIS process. At present, the current statistics given to justify the large Jail do not satisfy our organization. They are not complete and have not been juried by an outside source. Logically, these statistics should all be reviewed and validated if they are to justify an $80 million dollar or more expenditure of funds by our County Council and by our citizens. What if the statistics are fallible and our County over builds an excess 200 extra beds at $80,000 per bed cost (not including the cost of the land and the operating costs)? This would give us a capital expenditure in the tens of millions to recover. We would need to know what would be the exit alternatives to recover these costs, or what else could be done with these beds? It seems that the very statistics used to validate this size of Jail, are statistics created by and provided by the very departments that have been in charge of producing the incarceration rates and bed stays through administrative, prosecutorial and law enforcement action. It seems that whether they are quality and justified statistics should be validated by an outside party. For these very departments are also those who will ultimately benefit by the growth of the Jail. Therefore, it stands to reason that this could constitute a conflict of interest, and should rationally be reviewed for the benefit of our County Council and our taxpayers in this EIS report. This seems to be the very purpose of the NEPA request for outside oversight of projects of this size and scope. In our organization, working directly with those who are going through the legal process in our county, there are many questions that have been raised about the changes in arrest practices, about inefficiencies in our prosecution, our Jail operation and incarceration patterns. The confluence of these issues seems to be causing bottlenecks in the system that may be overloading our bed occupancy rates and may be driving statistics artificially up. It seems that this should be reviewed by an outside source to see what the real situation is, and to see if some administrative changes would change the bed occupancy rates, and therefore change the Countys projections. It seems that it is just common sense, as citizens, to ask that we review all this through the EIS report. Especially since this Adult Corrections Facilities and Sheriffs Headquarters request includes the demand to provide a 38,000 square feet (about an acre) headquarters for the Sheriff, plus provide an additional 32,000 square feet (about another acre) for storage. It
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EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

seems that it might be worth reviewing all our law and justice efficiencies before our taxpayers pay for this. Can this EIS process examine what is the national precedence for building this size of a Sheriffs headquarters to administer the jail needs of a county with a population of about 200,000? Especially considering that in Whatcom County we also have an abundance of other law enforcement agencies who have headquarterssuch as the new large Ferndale Police Station, a Bellingham Police Station, Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and many other headquarters. What is the reason that our Sheriff need this huge headquarters? To be more specific, we would ask this EIS Study to look at similar cities across the nation to compare actual trends in incarceration and jail bed rates over the last 30 years. Our request would be that the study looks at and compares statistics like the following: o The number and types of arrests as a comparison to other similar communities o The time that people spend in our local Jail relative to other communities o The number of charges filed against each person compared to the rate of plea bargains and compared to how many charges were actually filed by the officer initially o The range of incarcerations relative to the length of stay for non-violent crimes, the number of extended stays based on probation violations, the days spent waiting for the Prosecutors office to take administrative actions, and more.

Our County Council and our citizens could then see the changes in trends and arrest practices and identify the reasons for increasing occupancy rates, and compare options and ways to deal with the increases in perhaps a more cost effective manner. Wouldn t it be smart to have as an end goal to figure out if it might be possible with increased efficiencies in our Sheriffs office, in the jail, and in the Prosecutor s office to reduce the number of Jail beds used? How could that happen? That perhaps would change the growth rate and the demand for building a larger Jail, and it could actually help our taxpayers save money and capital costs right when our country is facing a depression, and severe losses of state and federal tax revenue due to austerity measures and other cutbacks. Could this be included in this EIS report it certainly has a huge human environmental impact, and a huge fiscal impact.

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

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SECTION 9 Community Groups to include to Explore Alternatives

According to the NEPA, several other community organizations have a direct interest in this project and might be wisely included in the process of looking for alternatives to this project. Whatcom County has a great list of non-profit agencies, and we would like to nominate several who might be interested in working with this process to find alternatives. This is our short list, and there are many others: The ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County Opportunity Council ReUse Works Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center Peace and Justice Center Homeless Coalition Whatcom County Health Dept. Bellingham Housing Authority Whatcom County Health Department St Lukes Foundation The Ferndale Double Dome Aquatic Center Lummi Nation Lummi Restorative Justice Project Nooksack Nation Seattle LEAD program, spearheaded by Dan Satterburg, King County Prosecutor

EIS Scoping Comments submitted by the ReEntry Coalition of Whatcom County

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